What's Your Vision?

And what negativity do you allow to derail your vision...

A good friend and I receive daily inspiration, motivation and all the good stuff in our inboxes. Sometimes the message is gentle and simple and sometimes it pushes us in ways we don't expect. The Advent reflections seemed to push us hard this year a.

Several weeks ago, the inspiration came in the form of an interview of Best-Selling Author, Speaker, and Leader Jon Gordon. The interview was conducted by Matthew Kelly and the title of the interview was “The Simple Shift that Neutralizes Negativity". This was the quick back and forth banter I had with my friend. Enjoy

Barbara:

I woke up at about 4ish this morning because the kitty decided to lay down on my bladder. Lol.  And, of course I look at my email and ck if there is a reflection to ponder on while I get ready for work...I haven't watched any of the videos, but this morning, the subject line spoke to me and I watched/listened to it.  

I could relate to most of what was discussed.  I have felt much more comfort as I've been slowly integrating more prayer and reliance on God. My biggest struggle is understanding what my vision is. I've been trained to cater to everyone else besides myself (so) that I think I have bits and pieces here and there, but to get the full picture is difficult.  I struggle with focusing on myself...I have a struggle focusing a good chunk of the time...like...oh, a chipmunk

Bernadette:

I like his idea of prayer and gratitude as a great starting point.

The thing is, Everyone has that problem. People who are self-centered are the worst (I believe he even discussed narcissists which are the lowest level of self-centeredness). But, focusing on what you are grateful for along with prayer... it is much easier to hear what you are meant to be doing when your heart and soul are joyful. 

I know for me I also have to remember that the message is never a BAM! "YOU NEED TO DO THIS!" It is usually an invitation delivered in a small way, like yours to me to meet for lunch over break. I said yes because I want to, but I also said yes because I am compelled too. I can feel within myself this is important, so I will do this and I am excited to do it. I suspect you have been compelled to invite me to go, because you have been persistent. So, you have said yes to the call as well...

It was at this point I realized I was called, correction, I was compelled to ask her to join me in something I am working on. The ask was a difficult one because it meant she would have to consider doing things she may not want to do, and I didn't want it to darken our lunch plans. What if she said no to my request? What if she decided she didn't want to go to lunch? That brings us to another point regarding how we envision the future and what we need to be looking at in regards to what we do next.

Are we flexible? Do we know when to say yes and when to say no?

I have to admit that in the moment I am not always flexible. I have my plans and listening to someone else’s ideas and bending to them means my vision looks different now. I didn't plan for the flex (Yep, I'm a planner down to the last cracker that will be served) and now I have to readjust. I have discovered over time that while my inflexibility may be there in the moment, if I take some time to think through the suggestion, I can see how it will work and make what I am doing better. I have started telling people, "This is not a 'no', I just need to think and see how this will work. Follow up with me tomorrow and let’s see where we are."

That brings me to the next problem, when to say Yes, and when to say No. This is way more challenging for me than flexing. I love to be interactive with others and when they ask me to join them it is hard to say no. I need to take time away to refresh, or at the very least not to over book. What does that graciously look like? I have started scheduling things. Not because I want to be strict with what I am doing. I am a visual person and when I can see the breaks and blank spots in my day I can tell when I need to step back and say I am booked.

Why are these last two things important? Because we are not listening to God and we are not talking to him. It creates a problem of feeling alone. How often do you book yourself or your family for one event, after another and when you finally get some down time, you discover you feel alone... You have just been surrounded by people all day, how is that possible? Because you never took the time to pray and we are back at the beginning of my friend’s conversation. We are not alone, we have the resilience and strength from the Holy Spirit inside of us to weather the storm, but we need to stay connected to that inner space and the one who calls us the beloved. We need to say no to "more" and we need to be flexible enough to accept help and others ideas so we don't carry the weight by ourselves.

Take care of yourself my friend!!